Purple Diamond Marketing Blog

Today, I attended a business seminar in Salem, MA. that addressed the financial challenges of new businesses and what they needed for a business plan to receive funding from a bank or other financial source.  In the audience there were mostly people looking to start new businesses that had never owned a business before and a few of us who have established businesses that were looking for new information. As various attendees asked several questions about how they were suppose to start a business with no money and how would they pay themselves in the first couple of years, I realized why so many businesses fail within 3-5 years.  The idea of investing in your own business or using your home as a way to secure a bank loan seemed like an outrageous request to some of these people sitting in the room. And, as a marketing coach/advertising agency, the reaction in the room pointed out one of the key reasons why so many businesses fail….if you are not willing to invest in your own business, then do you really believe in your success?

If you start a business and your first thought when you receive your first payment from a client is to pay yourself out of that check you are hurting the foundation of your business.  Cash is essential to the operations of your business and marketing and advertising costs are something business owners hate to spend money on, but they are the driving force to helping you make sales.  If you cannot go without drawing a paycheck for at least a year or two so that you can build a reserve of cash for your new business and use the money from your sales to generate more sales with a marketing strategy and an advertising campaign, then chances are you will never get your business off the ground.  No matter your great ideas, if you do not have the cash flow and the belief in your company to invest in your business,  your company will probably be one of those statistics that you hear in the news about the percentage of businesses that fail within the first few years.

So, as you are reviewing your business plan, do you have a marketing strategy and a real budget for advertising your business? If I called you today would you know how many items you have to sell or services you need to provide in a week, a month, or a year to hit a break even point in your business so that you could actually know when you are making a profit? Do you have set sales goals in place and a sound marketing plan to help you reach these goals? Do you have money in the budget for advertising? In short, do you truly believe in your own business and are you willing to make positive steps to building a strong foundation to grow on?

If you are still not working with a marketing coach or an advertising agency, perhaps it is time to invest in an area that is key to your success!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

If you have ever looked at the bottom of my Purple Diamond business card you will notice that I have “advertising / marketing / sales” listed as a way to help define Purple Diamond.  We see that each of these components are essential to helping your  business be successful so we look at all 3 parts of your business to make sure they are both efficient and effective to yielding the success you are counting on.  That said, how many business owners truly get what each of these components are and why no one component should be left out of your sales process?

The order that I see these 3 components is the following: marketing, advertising and then sales.  Though there are numerous definitions to these key terms, my definition for “Marketing” is the process of creating an interest for your product or service by defining  who is  your potential customer  and what value does your product or service offer to the client and what sets you apart from your competition.  “Advertising”, often paid,  is the process of communicating a persuasive message to a large group of people or audience to purchase your goods or services. The advertising should be in-line with your marketing message and strategy so that it will help to support the brand of your business.  Finally, the last component is sales. “Sales” is simply whatever it takes to close the deal or get a contract with a signature on it.  Some organizations create a team approach to selling and some decide that they prefer the one on one process that might have a commission incentive attached, but either way it is when you engage with a potential client on a more personal level.

Having a strong background in all 3 of these areas of expertise  is why Purple Diamond continues to offer their own brand of success for business owners north of Boston and beyond.  Whether you are a sole proprietorship or the CEO of a large corporation, consider the benefit of working with a company that understands the entire process of how to get you more sales and can easily identify where you need the most help and offer you a strategy that works within your budget.  Even if you have a marketing director and a sales manager in your employ this does not mean that you have all 3 areas covered effectively.  Often I have seen large organizations have a breakdown between the marketing and sales departments and it has cost them potential clients.  Bringing in an outside agency as a consultant who specializes in this area will improve the performance of your business and help you to close sales and improve the working relationship between departments.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Last weekend was the “TAX FREE” Massachusetts Holiday and the first place my husband and I thought to shop was at our local BEST BUY store to see what types of savings we could get on components to upgrade our computer systems.  As I looked around the crowded store I commented that consumers are addicted to computer technology and smart phone systems and it has become an essential part of our world in much the same way that the automobile replaced the predominant use of the public transit system in the 1950’s and 60’s.  Most families today grew up with at least one car and many had two and they watched the landscape of their communities move to offering shopping malls and other stores with large parking lots to accommodate their customers who all owned cars, while we watched a deterioration of the railway system that never reached the new shopping malls.  So, what does the comments about automobiles in the 50’s and 60’s  have to do with the impact of technology on consumers today and how you can relate it to help you market  YOUR own business?  Cars and computers both replaced something that once were considered essential and it directly affected how consumers shopped and will shop in the future.
Just like when the automobile became the popular choice of transportation over the railways, computers are now replacing the old systems of finding information like libraries, magazines, newspapers, and waiting for the news or weather report on TV.  Today’s consumer is directly influenced by the breakthrough in computer technology and faster internet services which allows them to be more informed and able to research quickly on-line items that they are considering buying.  Why wait for a commercial or printed advertisement to tell you about a product, when you can quickly find information on the web from your phone or follow the company that offers the product on their social media page, Twitter or blog?  Have you heard that today’s consumer doesn’t like to be “sold” and they often fast forward through commercials?  If you have been to the movies recently or watched any of the new TV shows, you will see that the larger corporations are incorporating product shots in the actual movie or show.  Last night as I watched SyFy’s hit summer show, “Warehouse 13″, they had several product shots of the candy “Twizzlers”.  This use of branding products with popular programming or media is to help “sell” the consumers who do not wish to be sold.

So, what does a small or medium size business do when they do not have the budget to have their product appear in a new hit movie or popular TV show and they need to find a new way to get their message out?  Create a bigger than life splash with the target market you are trying to reach using the resources you do have. Make sure your website looks great, comes up high on SEO rankings and that you are creating current blog content and using the popular social media marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.  Be sure to look for ways your product or service can align itself with larger corporations that already have strong brand recognition.  If your business is B2B in the local area, seek out the most successful businesses in your network and make them part of your inner circle of businesses that you attend events with, “friend” on Facebook and sign-up for their email newsletter.  If you’re trying to extend beyond the local market, take the time to join targeted networking groups on-line and be aggressive on Twitter and other sites for promoting your own blog so that you start to develop a loyal following.  There are many ways to use the technology of today to enhance your business and it will keep changing so be sure to work with a marketing specialist that will help you to understand what you need to do right now to help your business grow. Don’t ignore how much today’s technology has impacted the way your clients shop!

All my best to your success~
Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

This week I was happily surprised when one of my marketing clients posted a recommendation for my services on my Linkedin profile.  Though I have not really actively solicited recommendations for my work as owner of Purple Diamond on this site,  I have coached several clients on the importance of having a complete profile on social media sites like Linkedin which includes at least 5 or 6 solid recommendations and right now I have 12 listed on my own profile page.  Does  a recommendation on Linkedin get you noticed and more business? It could, but having a business profile on Linkedin without any recommendations might be hurting your image as a trusted professional.

Do you know how many recommendations you have right now on your Linkedin Profile?  Have you even taken the time to build your professional contact list on this site or actively joined groups that might lead to more business in your field? Think of Linkedin as a professional resume that you are posting for the world to see.  If you were applying for a position at a company or sending a proposal to a potential client do you think you would be taken seriously if you left out the offer of recommendations? Worse, what if they are requested and you honestly have none.  Marketing your business requires more than a logo, tagline and a fancy website.  Reputation and the willingness for other business owners to recommend your services will trump all the glitz every time.

Between yesterday afternoon when the recommendation went up live on Linkedin from Al Temkin  of  Temkin Financial Group and today, I have already received  7 responses from local business owners who read the testimonial! Great press comes from more than getting your name in the paper so please make sure that your own Linkedin profile page is ready for the world to see.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Recently the question was asked in a LINKEDIN group of marketing professionals what they have found has been the best way for a  starter business to market their business with a limited budget beyond the obvious word-of-mouth,  asking for referrals and collecting names for a database list. Today, I reviewed the 40 pages of answers that have been posted by professionals in the industry and it spoke to what I refer to as  the need for “true marketing”, there is no one solution that fits ALL businesses so please consider hiring a professional to help analyze your needs!

A cookie cutter approach to one of the most essential parts of your business with the belief that it will bring you instant paying customers is just like buying a lottery ticket today with the belief that you will win and have the money that week for your mortgage. The answers that were given to this question on Linkedin ranged from: email marketing, SMS Text Messaging, YouTube postings, social media marketing with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, SEO [Search Engine Optimization]for your website, Cold Calling, Press Releases, Chamber Memberships and Business Groups, Creative Marketing Message that stands out, Cross Media Marketing, Ad Targeting, Get Bank Loan and Invest in Real Advertising, Blogs and Contributing to On-Line Discussion Groups,  Ad Swaps, Direct Mail, mail Articles to Prospects, no one tool works/target marketing is key, Analysis and Tracking with a good CRM system, Business Card, and Branding Your Business consistently with a clear message. [Note: some of the suggestions offered were from people who sold that one product so Purple Diamond has posted the list as what were offered and not what we believe you need to do.  Purple Diamond believes in a one on one approach in which your business is seen as unique and deserves your own marketing coach/consultant.]  There were even more suggestions than all the ones I have posted here, but what was clear from all the responses were that even the experts have their own thoughts about what is the best low cost method to market your business.  So, if there are so many different views from marketing professionals, how does a business owner who has never worked as a marketing professional know what is best for his business? My first response is to call in an affordable consultant, like Purple Diamond,  to help YOUR business that does not have ties to any one product and has knowledge to what is working in your area and for your industry.  But, if you are not comfortable with hiring a marketing coach, then please look to free services in your area like SCORE or ask key people in your circle of business friends to help you brainstorm ideas.  In my own area there are CEO groups that many of the local business owners have joined that give them direct insight in to what local business owners have tried and found useful.  Please do not leave marketing up to chance.  Today’s economy is one that requires skillful analysis and creative ideas that get results!

All my best to your success!

~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

The number one marketing question I had this past week from business owners was, “How do I  get referrals?” The obvious response is that you ask for them!  I am amazed when talking with new clients to hear that they never have created a referral program with their existing client base or they fail to actually ask their clients if they know anyone who could use their services.  Asking your loyal customer base for them to refer others to you is one of the easiest ways to build new business.  Who better to sell your services than someone who already understands the importance of what you do enough that they are presently paying for your product or service! Now, if you are shy about asking in person or over the phone [which I really hope is not the case], you can use email marketing, a direct mail postcard,  a note on your monthly invoice asking your clients to please refer their friends and a message on your website and email signature.   Creating an incentive for people to refer business by offering a discount or “give away” promotional product [within the guidelines of your business]  or adding their name to a drawing are all great ways to keep the message out that you appreciate their referrals.  And, be sure to immediately thank your client with a personal note when they do refer someone and connect back with them to let them know how things went with their referral.

In addition to the referrals from your direct clients, consider other strategic partners that can help send business your way.  For instance, if you know other businesses that already sell to your target market and are not direct competitors, you could approach them to be a referral partner to your business by offering them a fee for each referral they send to you.  This also works great if you approach non-profit organizations that are looking for ways to raise money for their organization and offer to give back to them a portion of your sales for every referral they send.  Anyone who has a school age child has seen this work extremely well for wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions and food products.  When my own children were in elementary school there was a local Chinese Food Restaurant that teamed up with the school and gave a portion of the entire night’s sales to the school. The school promoted the event and  sent home notices that Wednesday was the night to have dinner ordered from this local business.  The program was so successful that it continued to be a regular fundraiser event.

Look for connectors in your own circle of doing business as potential partners for referrals.  My hairdresser received a stack of my business cards when I first opened Purple Diamond to hand-out to  clients she had that owned their own business and was needing help with marketing or advertising.  In return, I gave her coaching on how to market her own business while she styled my hair. We both were happy with the arrangement.

Always be looking for new ways to develop and maintain referral partnerships.  The most successful businesses have adopted all of these techniques and continue to grow their list of clients  rapidly.  If you are not getting the success you need today in your business be sure to call Purple Diamond and see why our tag-line is:  “Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

All my best to your success ~ Charlene

“How to Turn Around a Business in Trouble”  was today’s topic at the North Shore Business Forum in Danvers, MA.  Since I serve on the Board of Directors for this networking group, I try to attend each Friday and I enjoy listening to the various guest speakers that share their knowledge with the business group.  Today’s speaker had 6 tips to helping to “turn-around” a business and  among the top 6  he shared was a key message that I continue to share and why I started Purple Diamond….ADVERTISE! You need to promote and market your business always, but when your numbers are down and the economy is slow, it is essential for you to market and promote that business with advertising more than you have ever done before! Yes, this is scary to spend a larger part of your budget on advertising and marketing efforts, but how else do you keep in front of your market, achieve the sales you need and remind the world that you are still in business?

The right time to advertise is not when you are closing the doors to the store you have loved and owned for 25+ years, but this can also be a key time for running an advertising campaign.  No, if you want to stay in business and come out of this slow period as a strong leader in your industry you need to call an advertising agency TODAY!  There isn’t a miracle with any form of marketing or advertising even though many reps would like to tell you that their product will get you instant results, but if you continue to stick your head in the sand and take no action at all you can be sure that it won’t be long before your business becomes part of the growing statistics of fall-out from today’s economy.  You need to be visible and maintain a marketing presence and get in front of your prospects.  Don’t discard traditional forms of advertising like TV, radio, billboards, etc and think that you can substitute these for social media marketing.  The truth is you need to do both traditional and non-traditional and do them aggressively.

If you need help with your advertising and marketing please call!  Though I love writing this marketing blog and giving marketing tips and ideas, your business deserves immediate attention and a plan to take action. If you are on the fence about what really works and if TV or radio in your area is affordable and effective or if buying Google Ad Words or ads on Facebook equals sales for your business, call! Don’t get caught as one of those businesses that the first call they make for advertising help is  to promote a “going out of business sale”.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears The Purple Diamond!”

Yesterday,  I received 2 thank you letters from a local Girl Scouts’ Cadette Troop who had asked me to speak at their Business Women’s Seminar in June and it prompted today’s marketing blog topic, “Give To The Community and Help Your Business”.   Whether your company sells business-to-business or business-to-consumers, the model of helping your community as a way to help your business succeed is a positive model that works to help your business!

Beyond the obvious of the “good-will”  and potential PR opportunity or marketing exposure a business gets by sponsoring a community event, it also helps to build a strong environment and richness to the community your business has made home.  When the community is attractive it draws attention from others and brings in the best candidates for positions that may open up in your business in future years.  The popularity of community organizations in your local area and their well attended events will also create excellent business networking opportunities for your business without you needing to travel a great distance to connect with key prospects.  The home court advantage of sponsoring the local community event that is only a few miles from your office helps you or your sales team to easily get prospects to consider stopping over to your office while they are in town or to schedule a tour of your company at a later date.   When people become familiar with an area and they associate it with a positive experience, they are more willing to return or do business in that area and that helps your business.

So, what does a company do if they do if they only have $2000 a year  to give to the community organizations  or  events or an amount that is considered small compared to larger businesses? You can choose to give that one lump sum to one event in a sponsorship or donation, or you can divide that amount up in to $100-$200 increments and donate throughout the year to more than one community group.  My advice is to reach out to more so that more groups benefit and connect with your business.

Also, do not discard the importance of volunteering your skills or physically helping during the actual community event.  This is a great way to get to know key people within these organizations and also to connect with some of the larger corporate sponsors of the community events.  Smaller businesses may not have the cash flow that some businesses have, but volunteering your time or giving a gift certificate or gift basket with your business name on it to be auctioned or raffled off at the event is a great way to be part of the larger picture and get the exposure you need to grow your business.

Finally, if you are actively helping the community and there is a chance for a photo opportunity or a press release to be sent please do not be shy about sharing this on-line and with the newspapers and other media organizations.  Put it up on your own social media networking pages like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and blog about it as I have done here.

All my best to your success~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

If you have a business in 2010 most likely you have a website, but are you looking at the traffic reports for your site and other on-line  reports for internet advertising that you are running to determine how successful your on-line marketing footprint is? “Clicks” or visits to your website does not equal an automatic sale.  As impressive as some of these reports are with their high numbers of impressions and guaranteed clicks, if there is no results from these numbers that translates in to sales, then you have a problem.

Two things can easily be the reason you are not getting the results you are looking for from internet marketing when your reports show that you had high traffic to your site. The most obvious one, your offering didn’t sell me.  The product or service didn’t match the consumers’ needs or was priced too high for the market.  The second reason you have not had the sales to match the high “clicks” is that your website content and design of your site does not sell anyone.  Most people who use the internet to shop for products and services are looking for information that is clear and easy to read and can be found quickly.  If your home page or the landing page you have created for the ad word that was clicked on doesn’t capture a person in 3-5 seconds, you have most likely lost a sale.  Clutter on a website has a negative effect and if your site is hard to navigate and the person has to search for information or a way to contact you or place an order or a reason to buy from you, then all the “clicks” or visits to your website will not end up in  sales.

Some of the more proactive companies have employed the use of a “live chat” to their websites to avoid losing potential sales. This may not be possible for smaller companies that do not have a large enough sales or technical staff, but it does offer an opportunity to get the feedback you need immediately as to what a person might have a question about or what they are wanting to buy.  You are better able to match your products with their needs when “live chat” is available.

To learn  more about how to turn “clicks” in to sales contact Purple Diamond or consult with an internet marketing consultant.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Why do so many businesses now have a Facebook and Twitter page?  Simple, that is where the majority of people are spending their time! Whether they are using their Iphones or using internet from their PC at work or home, at any time of the day or night you will find a huge crowd hanging-out on social networking sites! The mistake that some businesses have made is to think that you can rely on “just” an advertising campaign that uses the traditional forms of advertising like TV / radio /  billboards / newspaper, without adding a concentrated effort on social media marketing to coincide with these campaigns.  To be effective in today’s market you need BOTH!

The results of traditional marketing have long been tracked and no one questions that having a creative TV commercial for your business that runs during a popular show or on a sports network during an important game gets your message out to the masses rapidly, but where are the profit margin numbers for Facebook or Twitter?  We can track clicks on many on-line banner advertisements and the traffic to our websites and blogs, but unless you are paying for an ad on Facebook you are left with only the weekly report of how popular your business page is, so how do you know?  The truth is that right now you actually don’t know for sure other than the incredible testimonials that small businesses with no advertising budgets have shared with others on how they have grown their business from a grass roots campaign on Facebook and Twitter.  My own company has had great success through social media marketing and I am presently helping many of my clients go boldly forward with adding this to their marketing mix.

When I hear from local businesses that they do not have time for social media marketing or they doubt the impact of using Facebook or Twitter, I am reminded of the early years of my selling TV commercials in the local market to the owners of car dealerships.  I had  a tough time convincing the owners of car dealerships to consider running TV ads on the local cable channels like CNN, USA and ESPN because they were convinced that all they needed was a newspaper ad since they saw many of their customers bringing in the ad when looking at cars.  How could a customer  carry the TV commercial in the door to prove the effectiveness of television advertising to the car dealership owners?    I needed to help them see that an ad with  “site, sound and motion”, that didn’t cost more than what they were spending in the papers,  could be very powerful in helping to sell cars.  Do you remember in 1998 when Volkswagen reintroduced the “Beetle”, they used television ads that moved people and got them excited again about the VW Bug which had tremendous impact on selling a retired old brand of automobile in a new fun way!

So, like the local auto dealers years ago who struggled with taking some of their advertising dollars from the newspapers and boldly buying commercial time on ESPN, USA, CNN and other great networks, today you have to ask yourself why you have not jumped in to using social media marketing with your traditional advertising.  If you need to have years of statistics to prove that this will enhance your brand and ultimately help you to sell more of your products, then you may find that you miss your window of opportunity to get out ahead of your competitors and gain market share.  And, by the way, the local car dealers who moved quickly years ago in buying cable TV advertisements saw that they did significantly better than the ones who only used the newspaper.

All my best to your success!~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”